Littleborough Methodist Circuit
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The Bright evening and morning star
I recently read two true short stories, which carry poignantly the message of Christmas. The first related how, during World War II, a little boy and his daddy were driving home on Christmas Eve. As they went past rows of houses with Christmas trees and decorations in the windows, the little boy noticed a star in many of the windows. "Daddy, why do some of the people have a star in the windows?", enquired the little boy. His daddy said that the star meant that the family had a son in the war. As they passed the last house, suddenly the little boy caught sight of the Evening star in the sky. "Look, daddy, God must have a son in the war too! He’s got a star in His window". The second story is about some kids who were putting on the Christmas play. In order to show the radiance of the new, born baby Christ, they put an electric light bulb hidden in the manger. All the stage lights were supposed to be turned off so that only the brightness of the manger could be seen. The kid, who controlled the light, however, got confused and all the lights went out. A very tense moment followed, broken only when one of the kids taking part as one of the shepherds in the play said in a loud stage whisper, "Hey, you switched off Jesus!"

The first story gives us the purpose of Christ’s birth, it reminds us that, indeed God has a Son who went to war by coming into our sin-torn world to wage war against sin that causes hatred, discord and disunity destroying, love, peace and good will in our world. He came into our world, became like us in order to transform us to be more like Him. The second gives us the source of hope. It is also a cautious reminder of how easy it is in the confusion of commercialism that surrounds Christmas, to switch off Christ, the light of the world, the one who should be at the centre of Christmas, in the busy preparation that proceed the celebration. Henri Nouwen, commenting on the Modern World once said, ". . . we are on the move from false uncertainty, to true uncertainty". Although we live in a world that is very advanced technologically, it is still a world full of uncertainty. By switching off Christ, the only true source of light in a world that is like a moral maze, we certainly move into more uncertainty. Christ said: "He came that we may have life and have it more abundantly" (Jn 10:10). The Apostle John further tells us that "There was true light which coming into the world, enlightens every man, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him . . . but as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God . . ." (Jn 1:9–11). If we grope in the darkness, it is because like the children in the play, we may have switched off Jesus. The scripture refers to Jesus Christ, as both the morning and as the evening star.

As a circuit we look back to the fruitful ministry of Tom and Ann McInerney, may we be thankful to God and treasure what was achieved during that time. As we look into the future in the days that lie ahead, may we have confidence in Christ, who issues the great commission and gives His continued presence as His assurance of what will happen in the day that lie ahead of us. The Risen Jesus Christ says "Go . . . make disciples . . . and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt 28:19–20). May we learn to depend on Christ in all we do and aspire to do. As we stand on the twilight of the by gone second Millennium and look back, may we keep holding onto Christ, the light of the world, who gives us light in the dark moments of life. As we continue in the dawn of the third Millennium, may we keep switched on to Christ who is the Morning star, to guide us through the uncertainties of the New Third Millennium.

Happy Christmas and Millennium greetings to you and yours
Daniel Mwailu

I’m in Heaven!
At the time of Jesus, the Jews believed in three types of Heaven. The sky was the first Heaven, e.g. see Job 35:11 where the Hebrew word for Heaven is translated as ‘sky’. The second Heaven is usually translated as ‘space’ or firmament’, and represents the region above the skies in which the globe of the Earth rested. Gen 1:8 is a good example of this usage where, again, the Hebrew word used is ‘Heaven’. And the third Heaven is the dwelling place of God – akin to our Christian idea of Heaven.

The Jews did not think of Heaven as a blissful destination after physical death, but believed in a shadowy limbo-like state known as Sheol. In most modern Bibles, the word Sheol is translated as ‘the pit’ or ‘the grave’, e.g. Psalm 103:4, ‘God redeems my life from the pit’ or Isaiah 38:18 ‘[People in] the grave cannot praise you, God; death cannot sing your praise’.

Everyone went to Sheol, good and bad alike – an aspect of ‘the afterlife’ that is well described in Ecclesiastes 9:1–10. Judgement only occurred at the end of time; only then could any form of Heaven – as a Christian could understand it – be entered into.

The more Christian idea of Heaven evolved during the years following Jesus’ ascension. The first change to the way people understood Heaven was to appreciate that people could enter Heaven before the final judgement at the end of time. This previously unsuspected bonus of the Christian life is well argued by Jesus when he spoke with Martha at the graveside of Lazarus, just before the dead man was brought back to life (see John 11:21–25).

Amazingly, we actually possess an account of how this new reality was first appreciated, from the first men to understand the changes caused by Jesus’ death and resurrection: hear the surprise in Paul’s voice when (in 2 Corinthians 12:2) he describes his experiences, saying, ‘I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago, was caught up into the third Heaven. Whether it was in the body [i.e. a bodily ascension] or out of the body [i.e. just his spirit] I don’t know – only God know’. Perhaps we take the idea of Heaven too lightly; but as staunch a Jew as Paul was amazed that we can have the first instalment of Heaven while still on earth! Notice also Paul’s use of the old Jewish way of thinking, as he continues to talk of ‘the third Heaven’.

But how tantalising it is that when Paul described in subsequent verses what a completely Heavenly existence felt like (2 Cor 12:3,4), he could only say that he heard ‘inexpressible things’!

Millennium challenge on two wheels

Mount Sinai via the desert to Nazareth
This year, my contribution to World Mission was taking part in the EMMS Millennium Challenge, a commitment to cycle 250 miles from Mount Sinai across the Sinai Desert, up the Jordan Valley and through Galilee to Nazareth. Six days arduous work, on bike saddle, all for good causes! A challenging route, ranging in height from 360 metres below sea level, to 500 metres above, in aid of Charity.

The Nazareth Hospital is a Christian hospital, owned and maintained by Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society (EMMS), Charity No. SC 015000. Since 1861, the Hospital has served the people of Galilee, regardless of race or religion. In that time, it has grown from a 4-bed clinic to a 136 bed District General Hospital, recognised by the Ministry of Health in Israel serving the people of Nazareth and the lower Galilee.

This is a hospital with a very strategic special ministry of Christian love and reconciliation bringing together all races in a diverse community of Arab and Jew, Christian and Muslim – to work and learn together, to heal differences and to build peace and trust in a troubled region. After completing the 1997 bike ride, for the same cause, we were taken around the hospital to see the work. It was an eye opener for me to learn that besides the strategic ministry of the hospital, the politics of the region, expect a Christian hospital to receive help from fellow Christians in the West, as an Arab hospital would receive aid from Arab countries.

My millennium challenge was three fold: First, train and keep fit, Secondly, to raise at least £2,300 in total, Thirdly, to have raised it by 31st December 2000! I was to be in company of 90 others, from various parts of the world, and together we aimed to gross over £500,000, to help the Nazareth Hospital.

To achieve this on behalf of the Hospital, I’m asking help from Christian friends who may like to contribution to such worthwhile Charity in the Home-town of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Please will you support my efforts for the Nazareth Hospital with a sponsored donation? Your donation, payable to ‘EMMS Bike Ride (NAZARETH HOSPITAL)’, can be send to me, using the enclosed leaflet with some information on the hospital

Millennium challenge – update
The challenge took place on November 2–12, but due to the current Unrest in Israel, it was re-routed to take place via the Egyptian desert to the Holy Land.

We were flown into Cairo and, after visiting the Pyramids, at Giza we were taken by bus to the cost of the Gulf of Suez, given bicycles and the challenge commenced! We followed the general route taken by the children of Israel via Mount Sinai. Day one we did 44 km and slept in a Bedouin tent by the sea. Day two was a killer we cycled 138 km and again slept in a Bedouin tent.

After day 3, we arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai, slept in a hotel.

The 4th day was a rest day, when some of us climbed to the top of Mount Sinai – on foot not on bicycles – to watch the sunset. We then had two days of cycling along the cost of the Red sea until we entered Israel via Eilat the southern most part of the Holy Land. We then were whisked by bus to Tel Aviv to fly home.

The director of the hospital joined us to brief us on the work of the hospital. One day during the current unrest, they treated 140 casualties and lost over $100,000 because most of these did not have insurance. Cycling in the desert in temperatures averaging 35 degrees C proved harder than I thought, but I made it to the end without the help of the accompanying mini-bus.

Yes I cycled 454 km (284miles!) thank you for your prayers.
Daniel

It’s good to talk
British Telecom certainly got the message across with this catch phrase. I am sure you will have seen the adverts on TV, and you link the phrase with the company. But it only tells part of the story: there is another side of the coin – it’s good to listen.

But it’s not always easy to listen, is it? Not to really listen, to pay attention, to concentrate on what the other person is really saying. Most of us are good talkers: we like to chat, we enjoy gossiping. Perhaps some of us love the sound of our own voice! We use three or four sentences when one would be sufficient. Ministers and lay preachers, do you give your congregation a pearl of great wisdom and truth . . . and then, instead of letting them digest it, proceed to analyse it, give at last three ways of studying it and point out several possible alternatives?

I really enjoyed two services at Dearnley recently. One was the Armistice Day service – thank you Gill. The other was the Baptism service – thank you Daniel. I wonder if I enjoyed them because neither included a sermon!

No: some of us are not good listeners. More than that, we don’t like silence. Does the two-minute silence on Armistice Day seem like an eternity? It is difficult to be quiet in the time between entering Church and the start of the service? If so, are you a bit uncomfortable in that situation?

Listening and silence are something we must all work at. We are told to ‘Be still and know that I am God’. We talk to God in prayer – but we must also learn to listen to Him. Let us get used to being quiet before we pray and after we pray. We should eventually find that the silences are as meaningful as the prayers.
Derek Ackroyd, Circuit Steward

Did You Know?
One of the traditional readings for Advent is Mark 1:1–8, in which John the Baptist is represented as a voice in the wilderness. In our times, ‘a voice in the wilderness’ is usually thought of as a loner, perhaps a bit of an oddball, and usually a voice of doom. But in Biblical times, the ‘voice in the wilderness' was taken as a prelude to joy and was eagerly anticipated, for ‘the voice’ was that of the forerunner, who announced that the king would arrive soon. And with the king in town, all wrongs would be righted and justice would be enacted. In Mark 1:1–8, John was that forerunner, Jesus was the King and ours is the joy.

Again and again in the Gospels, Jesus started a sentence with the words, "It is written . . ." e.g. see Luke’s account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness in Luke 4:1–14. To a Jew, these words of introduction could only be used of inspired writings i.e. of Scripture. In effect, because all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), we should mentally add the emphasis, "It is written by God . . ."

December book review
Jesus, the Son of Man, Kahlil Gibran, Oneworld, 1993

Many people will have read Kahlil Gibran’s classic book, The Prophet. This later book bears many similarities. It was a labour of love, first published in 1923, near the end of the author’s life. Its style is beautiful and poetic, with a deeply impassioned look at Jesus.

The book’s subtitle explains the approach taken: ‘His word’s and deeds as told and recorded by those who knew him’, so the book portrays Jesus through the eyes of his contemporaries. Some narrators were enemies, men like Caiaphas and a Sadducee; most were disciples like Peter, James, John, Mary Magdalene; while others still were more-or-less neutral bystanders: men like Pilate, Barabbas, and a man from Nazareth for whom Jesus made windows while still a carpenter, etc. The book comprises about thirty short narratives, each little story is simple – almost irrelevant in the detail – yet the whole achieves an astonishing depth and intensity. He somehow gets beneath the skin of these people, explaining who they are and ‘what makes them tick’ . . . and then shows us their response to meeting Jesus. Prepare to be deeply moved. I was.

The book is a perfect setting for the spellbinding power of Jesus’ own words (from the Gospels). We see them captivating the characters who people its pages. A striking portrait soon emerges of a man in love with God: a man of great love, and of power and charisma.

Kahlil Gibran was born a Christian in Lebanon in 1883. Many ancient traditions suggest that Mary and Joseph returned from Egypt via Lebanon, explaining why Gibran claimed to have grown up in places Jesus once saw. In fact, rural Lebanon in the 1920s had a large Christian population, but otherwise was essentially unchanged since the time of the flight to Egypt. And being from the Middle East, Gibran had an affinity with the people there which allowed a depth of understanding of Biblical times that enriches our appreciation of who Jesus was, and how people related to him.

As he grew, Kahlil Gibran became first a poet and then an artist with an intense and instantly recognisable style. In fact, several of his haunting portraits adorn the pages.

In summary, while being something of a novelty, this is an enriching and moving read. It will certainly inform and challenge, and will motivate us to know Jesus ourselves, first hand! 

The new Smithy Bridge porch 
For several months, Smithy Bridge chapel was swathed in scaffolding, as a new porch was built, together with an access ramp. The whole building has now been sandblasted to give render the stone an attractive honey colour. The inside has also been redecorated, as any who attended the recent charity fair will know.

There is a special day on 9 December, starting at 2:30, to see the porch reopened. All are welcome.